Forum Discussion
Week 1 Discussion
Since I’ve been working mostly in Rise, I found the AI feature for generating first drafts the most helpful. As a newer instructional designer, starting from a blank page can feel overwhelming. Having AI create a starting point for lesson text or knowledge checks made the process feel more manageable.
I was surprised by how well it could adjust tone. The rewrite and shorten tools were especially useful for making content clearer and more conversational. That said, I did run into challenges when my prompts were too general. The responses felt generic until I added more context about the audience and learning goals.
Overall, I see AI as a support tool that improves efficiency, but it still requires thoughtful editing and alignment to ensure the content truly fits the course.
I have learned that prompts can be the "make or break" of creating content. Sometimes just changing a word or two in the prompt can make all the difference. Engaging in "conversation" with the AI tool can sometimes help get me to the right prompt in other AI platforms and I have found that to be the case with Articulate also.
I agree with you that AI is good for creating something to work from - and often, a very good something! - but it will always be important to read and edit in order to ensure content is accurate and conveys the information you want to convey. AI makes us more efficient, but it can't do all the work for us.
Erica - I completely agree! It all comes down to the prompt and I too have spent a lot of time on various projects tweaking them to get the output I want. The instructional designers where I work have created a prompt library for various tasks, tools or processes that have been tested with good results. This library of tested prompts saves us time by using them as a starting point and modifying only the specifics to the respective work we are doing.
Hey Erica! Thanks for sharing your experience! You're right that you'll get a better output from the AI Course Draft if you provide more specific details in the prompt section.
I've found the following prompt structure to produce stellar course drafts:
Create a training for [insert job role] to learn to ______.
Include strategies for _______.
Include a lesson for each of these items:
-Item 1
-Item 2
-Item 3
Tone: [insert words here to describe the tone of the course]Audience: [insert learner job role here]
Love this discussion!
I follow Dr. Phillippa Hardman, and recently she posted an intriguing prompt to align learning objectives with assessment. She was speaking about prompts for NotebookLM, but we could learn from her thought process. I will share it here:
"Constructive alignment, developed by John Biggs (1996), is the principle that every assessment item should directly reflect a stated learning objective. Put simply: if you can’t draw a straight line from your quiz question back to an objective, the question probably shouldn’t be there
Why it’s powerful
Misaligned evaluation measures the wrong things.How NotebookLM uniquely helps
Upload objectives + Kirkpatrick framework → instrument table with objective mappings + citations.Try This Prompt
Using Biggs constructive alignment, draft Level 1-3 evaluation items mapped to objectives.
Table: Item Type | Item Text | Mapped Objective | Kirkpatrick Level | Citation"Yes, I love Dr. Phil's tips about using AI. Thanks for sharing this. I'd love if she shared more specifically in platforms like Articulate or if her knowledge lake of research was the source they used to have AI make decisions.
I agree that the AI feature is wonderful for generating first drafts. I like using it with a detailed outline that I've iterated with another AI tool from all my source documents. I find it helps make the Rise output more focused.
I agree with you that rewrite and shorten tools seem really useful. I find the output can be very wordy at times (much like myself!) and this is such an easy tool to fix that. That more conversational tone is helpful for keeping learners engaged and not having it come off as an information dump.
Good luck!!I enjoy having a launching-off point to refine and the ability to use it to assist me in refining materials I have. It's useful in reducing the delays of starting or finishing touches.
